I've Got Chicken Pox

In this upbeat amalgam of the imaginative and the informational, Kelley's ( Let's Eat ) humorously illustrated, jaunty tale of a girl who contracts chicken pox is accompanied by concise ``pox facts'' displayed across the bottom of every spread. When she realizes what the spots on her body mean, the child is at first elated (``Yay! . . . No school! I can stay in my pajamas all week !''). But the following day, when she comes down with a fever and a sore throat, she is far less sanguine. As the days pass, the impatient patient misses her classmates--and even tires of TV and Jell-O (``I'm not sick of ice cream and ginger ale, though''). Like the hero of Marc Brown's Arthur's Chicken Pox (reviewed below), this pox victim has a sibling torturer: her brother proclaims her first spot ``a cootie bite'' and messily devours a piece of chocolate fudge cake in front of her; however, he isn't altogether disdainful and pays her a dime to breathe on him. Kelley offers as entertaining a story line as does Brown, and the factual details she provides make this book a better choice for a youngster feeling apprehensive about chicken pox. Both books, however, will reassure--and bring on smiles. Ages 4-7. (May)